Confession of Sin

What is God? John answers: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” This statement is John’s first great thesis, leading naturally into much of the material that follows. In this section of the letter John presents his thesis (both from a positive and negative perspective), deals with three related denials concerning the nature and consequences of sin, and issues a call to holiness, “without which,” as the author of Hebrews states, “no one will see the Lord.”

In biblical thought two special ideas are associated with the image of light, however. First, the image generally has ethical overtones. That is, it is a symbol of holiness or purity as well as of intelligence, vision, growth and other realities.

John’s definition of God as light is followed by a denial of three false claims in which the reader is probably right in hearing an echo of the erroneous teachings of John’s Gnostic opponents. These men claimed to have entered into a higher fellowship with God than was known by most other Christians. They professed great things, but there was a flaw in their profession. They claimed to know God, but even as they made their claims they showed by their actions that they failed to take sin, which is opposed to the nature of God, seriously.

In yesterday’s study we looked at the first result of walking in the light, which concerns fellowship with other Christians. Second, John says that the one walking in the light will find the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ available to him for continued cleansing.

The application of this section of John’s letter must be to each man or woman individually. John has contrasted the nature of God (“God is light”) with the nature of man; and he has begun to show the characteristics of those who walk in the light as opposed to those who walk in darkness. It is not enough that a man should claim to be in the light. He must actually walk in it. He must be a child of the light.